FinTech Qenta Acquires Crypto Company Noble Money

Financial insurance platform Qenta has acquired digital currency company Noble Money, Inc. for an undisclosed amount, the FinTech said in a news release Wednesday (Aug. 17).

Noble Money works to scale digital currencies, starting with governmental adoption, the release said. It is backed by investors that include 8 VC, Tribe Capital, Social Capital and Green Sands Equity, all of whom will join Qenta’s investor group.

“Combining our regulatory footprint and technology with Noble’s will amplify our efforts around financial inclusion and access tremendously,” Qenta CEO Brent De Jong said in the release.

The release said the companies have begun making “a strong regional push” as the Pacific island nation of Palau considers legislation that would adopt a gold backed digital currency — which would be administered by Noble — as an official currency along with the U.S. dollar.

Qenta’s digital gold token G-Coin launched in the U.S. in 2019 and is available in 76 countries via digital asset exchanges, and is the appropriate solution for this, the company said. Based in Houston, Qenta’s platform offers asset tokenization, multi-token wallets, alternative banking, cashless payments and capital and risk management solutions.

“The fastest way to achieve our vision of making sound money accessible to every human is to partner alongside an established player with large payment and regulatory infrastructure and substantial private-public experience,” said Spencer Kaye, CEO of Noble Money.

Read more: UN Agency: Crypto Adoption Threatens Developing Countries

Last week, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has warned that cryptocurrency use threatens the monetary sovereignty of developing countries, particularly their ability to collect taxes. Among the solutions? The global coordination of crypto taxation.

While acknowledging that cryptocurrencies can make it easier for people working abroad to send money home — a positive for developing countries’ economies — other traits of cryptocurrencies can undermine the economies where they’re used.

Enforcing capital controls is tough, as cryptocurrency transactions don’t require intermediaries that can be compelled to report activity and participants to governments, the UNCTAD said. In addition, regulations governing crypto transactions are too vague in much of the developing world to allow for compliance.

“To improve taxpayer compliance rates and combat tax evasion, tax authorities should clearly define the legal status of cryptocurrencies and require crypto exchanges, e-wallet providers and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms to report gross inflows and outflows on all business and personal accounts,” the UNCTAD report said.